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Monday, January 30, 2017

The Wicked City by Beatriz Williams
Nine Island by Jane Alison
Roughneck Grace by Michael Perry
I Hid My Voice by Parinoush Saniee
The Other Woman by Therese Bohman
The Florence Diary by Diana Athill

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

You Have Never Been Here by Mary Rickert
A Well-Made Bed by Abby Frucht and Laurie Alberts
The Children's Crusade by Ann Packer
The Lake House by Kate Morton
Shelter by Jung Yun
The Center of the World by Jacqueline Sheehan
A Manual For Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
The Last Time She Saw Him by Jane Haseldine
The Beauty of the End by Debbie Howells
Country of Red Azaleas by Domnica Radulescu
A Hard and Heavy Thing by Matthew J. Hefti
Paint Your Wife by Lloyd Jones
The Odds of You and Me by Cecelia Galante

Friday, January 27, 2017

I have developed a real love for stories set in the 1920s. Prohibition and the Jazz Age are simultaneously so seedy and so glamorous. There's just something so seductive about the time, juxtaposed so teasingly with underground, unspoken violence. Beatriz Williams' newest novel, The Wicked City, is set firmly in this glittering, dangerous world in New York City and in the small town Appalachia of a big time bootlegger.

It's 1998 and Ella Gilbert has left her husband after she finds him having sex with a prostitute. She's moving into an apartment on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, a place she'll be able to create a new life for herself. On her first day there, she meets Hector, a musician and the building handyman of sorts and she's drawn to him just as she's drawn to the building. He warns her not to go down to the laundry room after dark but she forgets his warning when she remembers that she's forgotten her laundry down there. Strange and alluring noises come from behind the wall and she wants to go investigate.

Flip to the 1920s. Geneva Rose Kelly, more familiarly known as Gin, is a flapper. Typist by day, she flirts with her wealthy college boyfriend in speakeasies by night, especially the speakeasy on Christopher Street. After a raid on said speakeasy, Gin ends up talking to Oliver Anson, a Prohibition agent who wants her help bringing down her step father, the man who has become one of the biggest bootleggers and distributors on the East Coast. Reluctant to help Anson, but just as reluctant to turn on her abusive, lecherous step father, Gin ends up entangled in the whole thing whether she wants to be or not.

The narrative shifts back and forth between Ella and Gin's presents although the 1920s is more fleshed out than the late 1990s and Gin tells her own story in first person while Ella's is a more distant third person narrative. Gin's story is the more compelling and dynamic one (as is she as a character, sassy creature that she is) so the imbalance works. Williams does a good job evoking the language of the 1920s and subtly changing Gin's language depending on whether she's in NYC or Appalachia. Clearly Ella and Gin are women of two different time periods although both are learning strength, determination, and independence after having fled from their first lives.

As the tie between Ella and Gin starts to come clearer, the pace of both narratives picks up steam. Williams' careful readers will recognize the Marshalls and the Schuylers from previous books and while the new reader isn't missing too much not knowing them yet, the connection makes the story just that tiny bit richer. There is a small paranormal element but it only pertains to Ella's narrative thread and doesn't overwhelm the otherwise straight realism. There are a few unresolved but important plot lines, including the questions of Gin's biological father and Ella's find in her role as a forensic accountant that could have been pursued a bit further. Maybe in a future book? But the dichotomy of Duke Kelly's murderousness and his benevolence towards the small town in which he lives is intriguing and terrible and the truth about Gin and Anson is captivating enough to carry the novel. This is a rollicking good read with heart pounding action, murder, deception, and lies. Williams' devoted fans will be delighted by it, historical fiction fans will thrill to it, and readers who enjoy nothing more than a good tale will be pleased to have found another novel that feeds their need so well.

Amazon says this about the book: You know that feeling you get watching the elevator doors slam shut just before your toxic coworker can step in? Or seeing a parking ticket on a Hummer? There’s a word for this mix of malice and joy, and the Germans (of course) invented it. It’s Schadenfreude, deriving pleasure from others’ misfortune. Misfortune happens to be a specialty of Slate columnist Rebecca Schuman―and this is great news for the Germans. For Rebecca adores the Vaterland with the kind of single-minded passion its Volk usually reserve for beer, soccer, and being right all the time.

Let’s just say the affection isn’t mutual.

Schadenfreude is the story of a teenage Jewish intellectual who falls in love – in love with a boy (who breaks her heart), a language (that’s nearly impossible to master), a culture (that’s nihilistic, but punctual), and a landscape (that’s breathtaking when there’s not a wall in the way). Rebecca is an everyday, misunderstood 90’s teenager with a passion for Pearl Jam and Ethan Hawke circa Reality Bites, until two men walk into her high school Civics class: Dylan Gellner, with deep brown eyes and an even deeper soul, and Franz Kafka, hitching a ride in Dylan’s backpack. These two men are the axe to the frozen sea that is Rebecca’s spirit, and what flows forth is a passion for all things German. First love might be fleeting, but Kafka is forever, and in pursuit of this elusive passion Rebecca will spend two decades stuttering and stumbling through German sentences, trying to win over a people who can’t be bothered.

At once a snapshot of a young woman finding herself, and a country slowly starting to stitch itself back together after nearly a century of war (both hot and cold), Schadenfreude, A Love Story is an exhilarating, hilarious, and yes, maybe even heartfelt memoir proving that sometimes the truest loves play hard to get.

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

My book club tries to read a classic every year. And I love Jane Austen. So you'd have thought I'd be thrilled to re-read Emma, wouldn't you? In fact I tend to dislike Emma the character rather a lot. Having read it multiple times already in my life, and disliking her more each time I read it, I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and opted to skip it this go-round. Instead, I picked up this modern retelling of the tale by Alexander McCall Smith to see if I could muster up more sympathy for her in a more modern setting. And I did, at least to an extent. McCall Smith does a good job of capturing and updating Austen's Emma without entirely losing the things that made the plot run.

Starting back with Mr. Woodhouse's birth and early life, McCall Smith fleshes out what makes the distracted, hypochondriacal man tick. Once that is established, he moves on to Emma's childhood and upbringing, explaining satisfactorily how two young girls in the present day would end up with such an old fashioned thing as a governess. The back story that doesn't come with Austen's Emma is actually rather protracted here but since the characters have already been rounded out by Austen, having more history on them, explaining how they came to be who Austen made them is rather nice. The plot, an immature and meddling young woman trying to pair up all the wrong people because of her own unintentional snobbishness and preconceived notions, is maintained and there are certainly moments of humor. Because the focus on adult Emma, recently finished with her interior design degree at university, and her matchmaking doesn't happen quite as early as in the original, the secondary characters are not nearly as full and integral to the story here, leaving the focus on Emma's unchecked unkindnesses to those she professes to love and her unasked for interference in their lives. McCall Smith's Emma seems to have a dawning self-awareness sooner than Austen's Emma though, which is not a bad thing. In contrast, Mr. Knightley is far less present in this novel than he was in the original. The courtship is foreshortened and the ending is speedily dispensed with in about two pages.

Although I've focused on the differences between the Austen and the McCall Smith, this is easily read by those who have never read the original. In fact, people looking for a one to one concordance between the books will be disappointed. Some situations have been left out and others elaborated on in ways that Austen could never have imagined two hundred some years ago. But this isn't Austen; it's McCall Smith and reads like it. McCall Smith is a charming writer and his version of Emma is a satisfying one. He has modernized it but not beyond all recognition. There are still some small threads that are oddly old fashioned but readers familiar with his gentle, courtly manner of writing will not be surprised. Not a bad re-telling over all and one that many Austen fans will appreciate, as will those folks coming to the story for the first time.

You Have Never Been Here by Mary Rickert
A Well-Made Bed by Abby Frucht and Laurie Alberts
The Other Woman by Therese Bohman
The Children's Crusade by Ann Packer
The Lake House by Kate Morton
Shelter by Jung Yun
The Center of the World by Jacqueline Sheehan
A Manual For Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
The Last Time She Saw Him by Jane Haseldine
The Beauty of the End by Debbie Howells
I Hid My Voice by Parinoush Saniee
Country of Red Azaleas by Domnica Radulescu
A Hard and Heavy Thing by Matthew J. Hefti
Roughneck Grace by Michael Perry
Paint Your Wife by Lloyd Jones
The Wicked City by Beatriz Williams

Reviews posted this week:

nothing

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

The Veins of the Ocean by Patricia Engel
Emma: A Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith
Wreck and Order by Hannah Tennant-Moore
My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith
Exposure by Helen Dunmore
Eliza Waite by Ashley E. Sweeney

I like William's work and books set in the 1920s and this one about a woman who has left her cheating husband only to discover the speakeasy history of her new building's basement and her connection to one of the charming women who frequented it sounds fantastic.

If your mother started a new life opening a winery and goat ranch, you''d probably prefer LA once you were an adult too but when a trifecta of bad things happen and Willow has to go home, she just might find out she belongs in ways she never imagined. Sounds wonderful, right?!

If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Amazon says this about the book: Part love story, part workplace drama, this sharply observed novel is a witty critique of the false judgments we make in a social-media-obsessed world. New York Times bestselling author Sophie Kinsella has written her most timely novel yet.

Everywhere Katie Brenner looks, someone else is living the life she longs for, particularly her boss, Demeter Farlowe. Demeter is brilliant and creative, lives with her perfect family in a posh townhouse, and wears the coolest clothes. Katie’s life, meanwhile, is a daily struggle—from her dismal rental to her oddball flatmates to the tense office politics she’s trying to negotiate. No wonder Katie takes refuge in not-quite-true Instagram posts, especially as she's desperate to make her dad proud.

Then, just as she’s finding her feet—not to mention a possible new romance—the worst happens. Demeter fires Katie. Shattered but determined to stay positive, Katie retreats to her family’s farm in Somerset to help them set up a vacation business. London has never seemed so far away—until Demeter unexpectedly turns up as a guest. Secrets are spilled and relationships rejiggered, and as the stakes for Katie’s future get higher, she must question her own assumptions about what makes for a truly meaningful life.

Sophie Kinsella is celebrated for her vibrant, relatable characters and her great storytelling gifts. Now she returns with all of the wit, warmth, and wisdom that are the hallmarks of her bestsellers to spin this fresh, modern story about presenting the perfect life when the reality is far from the truth.

Monday, January 16, 2017

Emma: A Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith
Wreck and Order by Hannah Tennant-Moore

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

You Have Never Been Here by Mary Rickert
A Well-Made Bed by Abby Frucht and Laurie Alberts
The Other Woman by Therese Bohman
The Children's Crusade by Ann Packer
The Lake House by Kate Morton
Exposure by Helen Dunmore
Eliza Waite by Ashley E. Sweeney
Shelter by Jung Yun
The Center of the World by Jacqueline Sheehan
A Manual For Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
The Last Time She Saw Him by Jane Haseldine
The Beauty of the End by Debbie Howells
I Hid My Voice by Parinoush Saniee
Country of Red Azaleas by Domnica Radulescu
A Hard and Heavy Thing by Matthew J. Hefti
Roughneck Grace by Michael Perry
Paint Your Wife by Lloyd Jones

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Yes, yes, you're probably starting to wonder about my reading for 2017 if you've followed the rest of the reviews so far. A book about a woman trying to have an orgasm, then one with a suggestively punny title, and now one about a young woman obsessed with losing her virginity. At least some of you (probably my mom) are wondering what gives. The premise for this novel, a 26 year old woman who is still a virgin and wondering why moves in with her maiden aunt for the summer, discovers that said aunt is truly a maiden (ie also a virgin), and wants to figure out why even as she actively tries to shed herself of her own long standing virginity, sounded weird and interesting to me. Unfortunately, it wasn't as intriguing as I'd hoped.

Julia, the aforementioned 26 year old virgin, is completely adrift and lonely in her life. She hasn't had a purpose since she quit swimming in college, having been almost Olympic caliber. Finally tiring of the soul sucking life she's merely enduring, she quits her job and decides to move home again to regroup. But her parents have rented out her childhood home and are going on their own adventure for the summer so her only option is to go to North Carolina and move in with her father's sister, her Aunt Viv, who she barely knows at all. Her only decent relationship thus far seems to be with her parents as she has no good friends in whom she confides and certainly (obviously?) no significant other.

Taking a part time receptionist job in Durham, she decides it is finally time to lose her virginity and she spends much time wondering just how it is that she has gotten to her age without having sex. What she's really asking is why she has never found the intimacy and commitment that everyone else she knows started finding long ago. In order to help her on her quest, she tries everything: online dating, taking a painting class, flirting with a coworker, even trying to seduce a grieving son at a funeral. She is obsessed with not only figuring out what is wrong with her but also with rectifying it. However, as she goes about trying to connect with a man, she is quite condescending about those around her and she doesn't seem to see that she doesn't have a leg to stand on in her criticisms. She is quietly dismissive of her aunt's decorative plate painting and her general style. She describes the men she meets in less than flattering terms, criticizing their clothing or homes or offices. She is rather self-centered and bratty and it is hard throughout the novel to remember that she is in fact 26, not 16, because her immaturity shines in many of her (ill-advised) decisions.

The first three quarters of the book are very slow moving and the frustration of the reader mirrors Julia's frustrations. The novel is first person narration so the reader spends all of their time in Julia's head, seeing her wonder why she is still untouched. She looks at her past romantic history and tries to tease out where she's gone wrong, why she is so lonely and unconnected to others. She wonders about her aunt, snooping in the house and looking for parallels between them, especially once she discovers that her aunt is also a virgin. But even with all of her internal mental examinations, Julia doesn't see herself as she truly is, nor does she grow and learn from her experiences as the novel goes on. The final quarter of the novel has much more action in it than the previous three quarters, giving it an oddly uneven narrative tension. A disaffected main character, lack of action (no pun intended), and not as much insight into connection and intimacy as promised, in the end, this was not the reading experience I'd hoped.

Amazon says this about the book: When Isabelle Poole meets Dr. Preston Grind, she’s fresh out of high school, pregnant with her art teacher's baby, and totally on her own. Izzy knows she can be a good mother but without any money or relatives to help, she’s left searching.

Dr. Grind, an awkwardly charming child psychologist, has spent his life studying family, even after tragedy struck his own. Now, with the help of an eccentric billionaire, he has the chance to create a “perfect little world”—to study what would happen when ten children are raised collectively, without knowing who their biological parents are. He calls it The Infinite Family Project and he wants Izzy and her son to join.

This attempt at a utopian ideal starts off promising, but soon the gentle equilibrium among the families disintegrates: unspoken resentments between the couples begin to fester; the project's funding becomes tenuous; and Izzy’s growing feelings for Dr. Grind make her question her participation in this strange experiment in the first place.

Written with the same compassion and charm that won over legions of readers with The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson shows us with grace and humor that the best families are the ones we make for ourselves.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

I have to admit that I chose this book for my inner twelve year old boy. I was rather on a roll with quirky and unusual so how could I pass up such a hilariously punny title, especially with a cute dachshund on the cover?

When this contemporary romance opens, Piper is juggling all three of her part time jobs, driving a taxi to deliver a singing telegram after which she intends to deliver a pizza. Predictably given the odd job combo, nothing goes right for her. She lands in the lap of the gorgeous recipient of the singing telegram (he's also the CEO of the company), her dog Colin eats the bread sticks for the delivery (the pizza's cold anyway), and her taxi is stolen. Losing two of her three jobs just weeks before she finally finishes her practicum for vet school and graduates is about the worst thing that can possibly happen. But at least she still has her volunteer work at the doxie rescue, a job she truly loves.

When the gorgeous CEO, Aiden, shows up at the doxie rescue to pick up Sophie, the little female that Piper's doxie Colin loves, things get very complicated. Offering Piper the job of walking Sophie, Piper and Aiden start a dance that brings them together and moves them apart several times. Piper doesn't entirely trust Aiden because he is rich and he doesn't understand her insecurity and stubborn pride, resulting in him not keeping her in the loop of something very important. Aiden is very concerned with keeping business and pleasure separate, which leads to conflicting signals for Piper. The two of them are clearly worlds apart.

Piper's character comes off as a complete and total flake, scattered and disorganized, making the reader wonder how on earth she's managed to get through vet school. Aiden, by contrast, is portrayed as socially awkward but still an effortlessly high powered executive, an unusual combination to say the least. More than their respective oddball character traits, the novel is packed chock full of various plot threads. In many ways, this comes off as more of a slapdash caper than a romance as Piper and Aiden's relationship often takes a back seat to everything else that is going on from a stalker to family issues, from arson to attempted murder. The issue that is going to provide the dramatic tension is telegraphed almost from the start and it's hard not to feel frustration with both Piper and Aiden given this predictability. In the end, despite these flaws, this was an easy, quick read that was a pleasant enough way to spend a couple of hours.

Monday, January 9, 2017

I was browsing the shelves at my local independent bookstore when I came across this novel. As a mom, I hear the phrase "I'm coming" all the time. At a guess, that's why I pulled it off the shelf (well, that and the deep pink color of the words). The cover of the book made me giggle almost immediately; from the pink rabbit ears to the rumpled sheet background and the short blurb "a hilarious novel about why women fake it," this was clearly a novel of a different sort. After all, there aren't too many mainstream novels about a woman trying and failing to have an orgasm. As risque as that might sound, this is not a risque novel. In fact, it is far more an examination of the ways that women are held to an unrealistic ideal by society, by men, by other women, and even by themselves and how that might manifest itself in their sexual lives.

Julie is a married mother of three. She's a writer who is at a loss over her next project. Her husband, A, is no more or less attentive than most husbands and she's free from some of the demands of motherhood by the presence of her au pair. But Julie has never had an orgasm, a fact that distresses her a lot and a situation she intends to rectify. She buys herself a vibrator that comes with a 30 day money back guarantee. Life is busy and so it isn't until she is seven days away from the end of the warranty that she gets serious about learning to pleasure herself. Deciding to lock herself away for those seven days, Julie is alone with herself, her vibrator, and whatever spools through her head during the time she is trying to reach orgasm. And a lot spools through her head indeed.

The narration is first person although it ranges far and wide from the room Julie is in. She revisits her childhood, her sexual awakening, and much of her sexual history with various partners. In between her reminiscences, she is distracted by every day occurrences and consumed with feelings of failure, inadequacy, and of missing out. She fantasizes about men she's met recently, imagines her au pair's very probably healthy and fulfilling sex life, and ponders what about her life might be keeping her from fulfillment.

In the beginning, there are bits and pieces of Julie's thoughts that are very relatable to many women. The way her mind wanders from topic to topic feels very familiar and so the reader feels sympathy that she seems unable to turn this constant train of thought off, live in the moment, and just let go. But as she starts to examine her past, Julie becomes much less likable, recounting things that cause the reader to wonder if she's perhaps not as normal as expected, and in fact a bit unhinged or psychotic. These things make her an unlikable character, one that the reader doesn't want to spend time with, instead of someone the reader can relate to or respect. Her interactions with a construction worker are disturbing and her behavior with the dog she so desperately wanted but eventually tires of is unforgivable. It is hard to get past these and other incidents to stay with the main story.

The novel's social commentary is astute and interesting and the way that sexuality and all that surrounds it is very often secret and shameful or at the very least undiscussable is handled very sensitively. The ending of the novel is unsatisfying (ha!) although it is very likely the only suitable ending given what came before it. The novel is not hilarious as the cover suggests although there is definitely some humor in it. Perhaps being a Norwegian translation makes its humor less accessible to an American audience. Also, it is surprisingly not sexy so those picking this up looking for titillation will not find it. Although Julie spends much of the book in bed, the masturbation scenes are not graphic or frequent at all, making this more of a feminist look at sexuality and the expectations and ideals we hold women to in all parts of their lives, including that most personal realm, the bedroom. Ultimately I was so turned off by Julie as a character that the novel didn't fully succeed for me but I did appreciate the nuggets of truth I uncovered.

I didn't exactly start this year as I mean to go on. I'm already behind in the reviews. ::sigh:: This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed this past week are:

I'm Coming by Selma Lonning Aaro
Must Love Weiners by Casey Griffin
Losing It by Emma Rathbone
The Veins of the Ocean by Patricia Engel

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

You Have Never Been Here by Mary Rickert
A Well-Made Bed by Abby Frucht and Laurie Alberts
The Other Woman by Therese Bohman
The Children's Crusade by Ann Packer
The Lake House by Kate Morton
Exposure by Helen Dunmore
Eliza Waite by Ashley E. Sweeney
Shelter by Jung Yun
The Center of the World by Jacqueline Sheehan
A Manual For Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
The Last Time She Saw Him by Jane Haseldine
The Beauty of the End by Debbie Howells
I Hid My Voice by Parinoush Saniee
Country of Red Azaleas by Domnica Radulescu
A Hard and Heavy Thing by Matthew J. Hefti
Roughneck Grace by Michael Perry
Paint Your Wife by Lloyd Jones
Emma: A Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith

Reviews posted this week:

nothing, because I stink

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

I'm Coming by Selma Lonning Aaro
Must Love Weiners by Casey Griffin
Losing It by Emma Rathbone
The Veins of the Ocean by Patricia Engel

A young mother who is almost finished with her probation, almost to the point where she can reclaim her life and build the life she wants for herself and her small son, is faced with a difficult decision when she comes face to face with a man she knows and has a history with who has escaped the police, is injured and needs her help. This sounds thrilling, doesn't it?

If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Monday, January 2, 2017

Size Matters by Cathryn Novak
West With the Night by Beryl Markham
The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

You Have Never Been Here by Mary Rickert
A Well-Made Bed by Abby Frucht and Laurie Alberts
The Other Woman by Therese Bohman
The Children's Crusade by Ann Packer
The Lake House by Kate Morton
Exposure by Helen Dunmore
The Veins of the Ocean by Patricia Engel
Eliza Waite by Ashley E. Sweeney
Shelter by Jung Yun
The Center of the World by Jacqueline Sheehan
A Manual For Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
The Last Time She Saw Him by Jane Haseldine
The Beauty of the End by Debbie Howells
I Hid My Voice by Parinoush Saniee
Country of Red Azaleas by Domnica Radulescu
A Hard and Heavy Thing by Matthew J. Hefti
Roughneck Grace by Michael Perry
Paint Your Wife by Lloyd Jones

I'm not putting my Christmas haul in this list. Although it was wonderful, it was embarrassingly extensive. ;-) So these are just the books that came in the mail. This past week's mailbox arrivals:

The Eye of Love by Margery Sharp came from me to me because I was ordering everyone else books and I needed some too.

I'm not sure how exactly I heard about Sharp and the fact that she's not really known anymore but when I read the synopsis of this and saw how much like a soap opera, but a very highbrow and literary soap opera, this sounded, I couldn't resist.

Today Will be Different by Maria Semple came from my wonderful friend Carin after she went to a signing at her local indie bookstore (it's signed to me!).

I enjoyed Semple's last book and I've been waiting for this one. I'm pretty sure that someone's been spying on my life--you know, the resolutions to do better daily that may or may not actually get accomplished.

About an autistic girl who, after years in foster care is finally adopted but struggles to feel at home with her new family so she decides to arrange for her biological mother to kidnap her, this sounds like it will be amazing and touching.

If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Sunday, January 1, 2017

Light and fluffy romantic chick lit can be refreshing. A story about two eighteen year olds who fall in love right as their adult lives are starting should definitely be one of the feel good books that make me like this genre so much. Obviously there will be obstacles, as in every novel, indeed in every life, but the overriding feeling should be one of happiness and rightness. And normally books like this deliver without fail, which is why I reach from them. But there was something about this one that didn't quite come through for me.

Alice and her family go to Dorset for the summer before she goes off to university. She fully expects to be bored silly since her best friend can't go with her as planned. But when she and her parents end up at a local pub, she meets Joe. He's good looking and brooding and the two of them fall in love. But his family situation is untenable, his parents are abusive, and his brother is terrifying and dangerous, and eventually Joe and Alice are torn apart. She mourns the loss of him until she finally moves on with her life, meeting and marrying Lukas. But Joe isn't gone; he's gotten famous. What will his reappearance mean in Alice's life?

This is a tale of first love but it's not a light one by any means. The tone of the novel changes significantly from dark and terrible to hopeful. But the characters aren't driving that change so it feels artificial, an unrealistic fantasy. Joe was always Alice's first love so it's not surprising that she's conflicted when he comes back into the story. The bulk of the story is not about Alice and Joe, except as absence since Joe is present at the very beginning and then only comes back into the story rather late. Alice's relationship with Lukas is the major portion of the novel and that's not a good thing since she comes across as weak, and he's possessive and controlling even before he has to compete with the intensity of remembered first love.

It was hard to sympathize with or appreciate any of the characters in the novel even though Joe is a Cinderella for whom the reader is supposed to feel sympathy. I've never rooted against first love but I probably would have here had Lukas not been unredeemable as a character. Alice and Joe move from lust to love almost immediately (they are teenagers after all) but there seems to be little growth in them for all the years and experiences they spend apart. Can it still be called love if you don't even know the person anymore? Or is it just a lust refresher? The ending of the novel is intentionally ambiguous (although it's fairly obvious what it has to be) in order to allow for a sequel and it felt rushed to boot, neither of which is ideal in a novel. Readers who don't mind infidelity and melodrama in their chick lit might like this one although it didn't really work for me.

Happy New Year! Am I the only one who reads that in the voice from Rankin and Bass' Rudolph's Shiny New Year? I know, I know. I'm weird, but then that's no surprise to anyone who knows me. It's a new year and that means a whole new reading year too. I always think a good resolution would be not to buy any new books for the year and just focus on those I already have but I hate to set myself up for failure so very obviously. Plus, who can resist the delectable books slated to come out this year?! So that's definitely not in my plans. (Apologies to my husband who looks at the bank account in dismay every time I've been within a three state radius of a bookstore!) I would, however, like to do better at keeping up with my reviews. I did dismally on that in 2016 so here's resolving to be better in 2017. One resolution is probably all I can focus on so I should stop there. :-)

I haven't yet published a best of 2016 list; I'm ever hopeful that I will read a contender for the list right up until the ball drops on the year (or at least until my eyelids close, whatever time that might be). So now that it is officially 2017, I can pull together my 2016 list without fear of leaving something off. Drum roll please...

Do you have a best of list? Do you have reading resolutions for this bright and shiny new year? Share them with all of us so we can add to our tbr lists or cheer you on to accomplish your reading goals.

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About Me

A voracious reader, fledgling runner, and full time kiddie chauffeur.
If anyone out there wants to send me books for review (oh please don't fro me in that briar patch!), you can contact me at whitreidsmama (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you do write me there, put the blog name in the subject line or I'm liable to send the unread message to spam. My book review policy can be found here.